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Monday, March 9, 2009
Interesting stuff for advertisers and marketersResearch shows viewers prefer their TV with commercialsHaving a TV show interrupted
by commercial breaks makes the experience more enjoyable, because it extends the pleasure, in the same way that eating a chocolate
bar slowly seems to make it taste better, according to two new reports. "The punch line is that commercials make TV programs
more enjoyable to watch. Even bad commercials," said Leif Nelson, an assistant professor of marketing at the University
of California, San Diego, and a co-author of the new research.
Cablevision to offer ad-targeting by household
Cablevision will begin offering
advertisers the chance to target their ads to specific households based on demographic segments such income, ethnicity, gender
and family makeup. According to this report, the service initially will be available in 500,000 homes in Brooklyn, the Bronx
and parts of New Jersey.
Smyth calls for radio to sign on to CPM standard for ad sales
Greater Media Chairman-CEO
Peter Smyth is backing a move, expected to be endorsed by the 4A's at their Media Conference in New Orleans, to establish
the CPM unit as the standard for media sales. "We need to move with the marketplace and we need to provide the ease of
purchase that our customers demand," Smyth writes in his monthly "From the Corner Office" column.
Web-only future mulled for Seattle daily
Hearst reportedly plans to
make the Seattle Post-Intelligencer the nation's first big-city daily newspaper that will be available as a Web-only publication.
Hearst, which declined to comment, announced Jan. 9 it would decide within 60 days whether it would sell the newspaper, turn
it into an online-only publication or shutter it.
Skittles taps into Twitter buzz
Mars Snackfood brand Skittles
has shaken up the world of social-media marketing with its new tactic, which entails citing real-time mentions of the brand
on micro-blogging network Twitter. The move has led to a dramatic uptick in Twitter mentions of Skittles, but the strategy
is drawing a mixed reaction from social-media experts.
Research shows paid influencers succeed in building buzz
Brands can boost online word-of-mouth
in a cost-effective manner by using paid influencers, but they must be careful in choosing bloggers and disclose that they
are being paid, Forrester Research has found. Such "sponsored conversations" can be useful especially for brands
that otherwise would be unlikely to generate much buzz on their own, according to Forrester.
Expanding ads now available on Google's AdSense network
Google has started to offer
U.S. marketers in its AdSense network the ability to field ads that expand to post additional content, including film trailers,
video game segments or additional images of a product. The ads can be created by Google's list of approved third-party
rich media producers, including specialists such as Eyeblaster, Pointroll and United Virtualities, along with its own unit,
DoubleClick, and Microsoft's Atlas.
ABC to test whether viewers can laugh at economic crisis
ABC will try to mine laughs
from the current economic collapse, via two sitcom pilots whose plots turn on the crisis on Wall Street and among the nation's
banking system. In one series, Kelsey Grammer is to star in a still-untitled show that focuses on a Wall Street tycoon who
is forced to become a stay-at-home dad, while the other, called "Canned," revolves around an ensemble cast of Generation
X-ers who lose their jobs at an investment bank.
8:07 am cdt
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